The ASEAN+3 international bond market forum opened in Busan on November 2, 2026, and the Busan special session on the first day set as its agenda the role of finance in the green and sustainable transition of the maritime industry and ways to cooperate internationally. Jeon Ki-hwan, a department head at the Korea Ocean Business Corporation, presented at the session on shipping decarbonization using blue bonds and maritime finance in Busan. Digital bonds are also among the discussion topics at the same forum.
Blue bonds are a means of raising money through bonds for use in the maritime sector, and with this program, shipping decarbonization has become a subject of discussion at the ASEAN+3 bond market forum.
The scope of discussion does not stop at the single industry of shipping. The Arctic shipping route was included among the discussion topics of the Busan special session, and sustainable fisheries and blue finance were also presented as major agenda items. Across the forum as a whole, ways to expand sustainable finance and the digital transformation of finance are also on the agenda. The event was described as being hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) with the participation of BNK Financial Group.
The Arctic route may look like a matter of navigation, but at the Busan special session it was taken up together with the maritime finance discussion. Ships sailing a new route and ships with reduced carbon emissions alike need long-term funding, which gives a finance forum a reason to address the subject. Whether blue bonds will be used this far depends on the terms of issuance.
Digital bonds and blue bonds are agenda items on different levels. While blue bonds are distinguished by where the money raised is spent, digital bonds concern how bonds are issued and traded. With both on the topic list of one forum, the use of funds and the method of issuance have become subjects of discussion at the same event.
Whether blue bonds become a substantive financing tool for Asian maritime finance can be judged by issuance amounts stated with a currency unit and a reference date, and by the share of those amounts in the funding needed for shipping decarbonization. The program of the session on the 2nd alone makes it difficult to gauge either.
Being placed on an agenda and raising funds are separate stages.
Verifying the use of proceeds can also be counted among the remaining tasks. For a bond issued in the name of shipping decarbonization, investors must be able to confirm whether the money raised went into actual projects such as eco-friendly ships, and without this procedure, the grounds for distinguishing it from an ordinary corporate bond weaken. It becomes more complicated across borders. In a market with several participating countries such as ASEAN+3, if certification standards differ by issuing country, investors have to examine each bond separately.
On the Busan side, the blue bond discussion is connected to the regional finance agenda. This is because the topic of Jeon's presentation included the development potential of maritime finance in Busan. For the idea to become reality, issuers, investors and use-of-proceeds verifiers must be tied together in actual transactions that pass through Busan.
If the forum's discussions lead to issuance plans, blue bonds could move from an agenda item to a financing tool. Without follow-up issuance, the Busan special session is likely to be recorded as a single day of discussion on November 2, 2026.
Only when issuance disclosures show amounts with a stated currency and reference date can the claim that blue bonds are a source of funding for shipping decarbonization be verified.
